Month O' Owies

I'm not going to lie. This month has been awful. And yet wonderful. And yet horrible. And yet great. Not sure how that works.

Part of our fun has been all the fun owies.

CARSON

We finally got in to see the kidney specialist and Carson was then put on an antibiotic for some testing on his kidneys. The antibiotic made the poor boy sick--diarrhea (and the raw bum that goes with it) and vomiting and just kind of fussy. Then we got to take him to the hospital for the actual VCUG. Thank goodness Chris came with me to hold him down. I wanted NO part of it.

And we had a momentous occasion this week. I actually took Carson BY MYSELF to get his shots. This day has been 3 1/2 years in the making. I pretty much hate needles. They tend to make me throw up or pass out...yeah...I'm pretty much a wimp. Say what you want. At least I'm a self-aware wimp.


CALEB
Caleb has had a bit of a rough month.

The normal:
Bruises and goose eggs like this:

You know. The falling-off-the-kitchen-chair-hitting-your-face-on-the-floor bumps and the running into the wall bruises. Caleb usually has at least one good bruise and/or bump on his forehead at any given time. One heals just in time to get another.

He also sliced his head open and we were seriously debating stitches. Luckily, it didn't come to that. But I also realized one more important failing as a mother. Caleb hates band aids. I thought all kids loved band aids!?! I thought band aids made everything better!?! He sliced his foot open and I tried to put a band aid on it and he would have none of it. Where have I gone wrong?!?!

The strange:
One day he randomly puked during his nap. But he seemed totally fine before and after. Then three days later he woke up and seemed like he had a temperature. I knew he was sick when I turned on the tv so he could watch Diego and he jumped up to dance like he always does to the Diego song. He quickly said in a sad little voice, "I don't want to dance to Diego this time..." and laid back down on the pillow. By noon his temperature was up to 103 and stayed that way despite drugs and he was just miserable. We had to keep giving him baths to keep it down since the alternating drugs were not working. Anyway, the next day the fever was just as randomly gone and there were no more symptoms.

The ugly:
His eye was red and swollen for about a week and a half before I finally took him to the doctor. It ended up that he had a sty in the lower lid of his eye. We had to do antibiotic eye drops (that he did not really appreciate) and warm compresses for awhile. While we were at the doctor for his eye, I mentioned that Caleb had been sleeping like 14 hours at night and still taking long afternoon naps and snoring really bad the last few months. The doctor was like...uh yeah...that's not normal! and we were referred to an ear nose throat specialist. Turns out, it was his tonsils. They were pretty much ginormous and causing sleep apnea. So we started with the fun of going to get more blood drawn for some lab work. Can I just say how much I enjoy having Caleb on my lap and having them draw blood from his arm. That's twice this year. There's my wimp factor again.

So yesterday we did the tonsils. If I never have to do something like that again, it will be too soon. I felt so bad doing that to Caleb. He did awesome...I felt horrible.

We went early yesterday morning. We got to wait in the waiting room for a long time. Caleb and Carson entertained each other.


I love how much they love each other and how much fun they have together.

We finally got called back and Caleb got to sport an awesome tiger gown and bright red socks. His favorite color, so he tells me often these days.



Even more waiting. Caleb was SOOOO good. Nice and calm and patient. We read lots of stories.



They finally came and got him and I just wanted to bawl. I didn't want him to have to go through this. When he was in the recovery room, they called us back and again, I just wanted to bawl when I saw him. His little face looked so miserable. He was being so good though.

The nurse said he didn't even cry and that he was by far the best patient she had had for a long time. Most of the kids in the room were screaming and crying. Caleb was just chill. He would wake up and we would get him to drink some juice and then he'd go back to sleep. We took him home and he did a lot of sleeping on dad

And a lot of sleeping on the couch.


It seriously broke my heart to listen to him sleep. He kept coughing and moaning. And sweating a ton. But when he was awake, he was in good spirits and gave us lots of smiles, talked quite a bit, and drank a ton. But he never really moved off the couch at all.

Until he got a dose of Weatherholtz. It is the best medicine apparently. As soon as they stopped by, he jumped off the couch and played with his toys and was being his usual crazy little self. He even yelled goodbye several times to them from the front door as they were leaving. And since then, he's been great. This morning he was all smiles and asked for his brother to sit by him



And yes, he even did his usual dance to the Diego song



As I am typing this, he is back to entertaining his brother



Anyway, after a small fortune being invested in doctors, specialists, hospitals, and drugs...hopefully we are all on the mend. We are extremely grateful for the good news we received this month about Carson's kidneys. We're thankful that we were able to get Caleb's tonsils out so that he can sleep better and how well he seems to be recovering. And I'm especially thankful that Chris is such an awesome husband and dad to help me out with so much this month!

And finally, when asked to recount his version of events this month, here is what Carson had to add to the details above:
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Nuf said.